– Too Much – NRK Vestland

Night to Saturday and night to Sunday, the bar office in Bergen visited 18 and 19 liquor-licensed restaurants downtown.

This resulted in 7 and 13 violations of infection control rules.

Elsewhere, the brewery inspectors paid a visit and thus broke infection control rules.

– The result on Friday was not surprising. It takes time to adjust. But I think there were too many deviations yesterday, says leader Terje Gjertsen at the Pub Office in Bergen Municipality.

First weekend with new measures

The inspection was the first round over the weekend after the municipality adopted new local corona regulations in Bergen on Wednesday.

The regulations will last for four weeks and will grant the catering industry conditions much stricter than the national guidelines established by the Ministry of Health and Care Services.

Where national regulations require that there be at least one meter between seats when guests arrive, Bergen City Council requires that there be one meter between guests at all times.

And this is exactly where most of the sin is committed, shows the preliminary report to the manager of the Gjersten bar.

– The vast majority of deviations, almost everything I would say, are at an adequate distance between the boards. Here, nightclubs struggle to adapt, he says.

The second case concerns table service violations. Having a guest bring a beer from the bar to the table is enough to make a comment. Even if there are no other guests in the bar.

– Clearly there are different levels of crime. Of course, we show discretion and guide restaurants over the city. Although nearly all the diversions were resolved in the city, the report notes, Gjertsen notes, adding:

– We will take a closer look at the report after the weekend. There was nothing alarming, although I think the numbers are too high.

These are the requirements for the catering industry:

From night to Thursday, the guidelines went into effect in Bergen. All pubs, restaurants and other restaurants where guests can enjoy a meal or drink must meet these requirements:

• At least one meter between guests who are not from the same household.
• Require guests to identify themselves and keep lists. Guests who do not identify themselves will not be allowed to enter.
• Keep the sound level low enough so that guests can talk to each other at a distance of one meter.
• Guests and staff must wear face masks when moving in the room and a distance of one meter is not possible to observe (does not apply to children under 13 / teenagers of school age).
• Make it easy for guests to comply with infection control advice and have hand alcohol available.
• Guests are not allowed after midnight.
• Alcoholic beverages are not served after midnight.

Gjertsen believes that most nightclubs do a formidable job of trying to comply with new national clarifications and new local measures.

One challenge is the gap between local requirements and national calls, which, among other things, refer to the issue of identification. In the central guide, the identification must be verified to obtain the consent of the guest. In the Bergen package of measures, there is a requirement.

– This is especially difficult in typical family towns, like Peppe’s Pizza. Do children have to show identification? Is it enough for parents to do it? Here are some of the challenges for us. The more confusing the regulations are, the more difficult it is to interpret, says Gjersten.

– Very few people

The last time Bergen introduced local regulations, the bar inspection found that the nightlife had dried up. That time lasted two weeks. Now there are three weeks left.

After the weekend inspection, the bar office notices the effect.

– There were few people in August, and this weekend has been very quiet. In Bergen, we have had problems with queues outside, but when there is a small gale and also a rain, that problem largely disappears. Our theory is that there will be fewer people in the city in the next few weeks.